Mavalli Tiffin Room -MTR

Mavalli Tiffin Room -MTR

The buck for Karnataka cuisine has to stop here say's Asha. Well with 200+ entries for the event ,heck it has to stop. When RCI-Karnataka event was announced I was looking forward to my contribution, just did not realize it would take so long, Thanks Asha for accommodating my entry.

My history with K-Cuisine goes long way back, was fortunate enough to have spent some of the best years of my life in Bangalore, must say those years were the most sweetest and carefree life I have ever lived. Bangalore is such a cosmopolitan city, beautiful weather, warm people myriad choices of food all in all it was a great city to live. Usually during summer after a hot afternoon there would be slight drizzle in the evening and in our house after the drizzle your truly along with parents and brothers would go to Banshankari 2nd stage complex and enjoy chaat or dosa from the near by dosa camps.
Never before have I seen such quality food in huge numbers else where, every nook and corner in Bangalore has small restaurants like darshans, vihaar and dosa camps.

My entry to RCI- Karnataka would be MTR, that’s right Mavalli Tiffin Room, one of the largest food conglomerate in India, has its origins and history very tightly associated with Bangalore and Karnataka. The standards set by this 78-year-old institution are not easy to emulate
MTR”S Heritage (courtesy MTRfood.com)

At MTR, we are proud of our rich heritage. Our tradition of food and hospitality began in 1924 with the establishment of the Mavalli Tiffin Room by the Maiyya family in Bangalore, India. This restaurant is a city landmark today and people still stand in queue to savour its unique, completely authentic dishes. Over the years, we have played proud host to many distinguished personalities who dropped by for the excellent coffee and the stimulating conversation.

MTR is/was a favorite to many famous politicians/leaders and other celebrities. I myself have enjoyed a love/hate relation with MTR, love for the finger licking good food and hate for the big queues and wait times at any given point of time.

Did you know that Rava idle was invented my MTR, cool hah !!

A typical Udupi Brahmin cuisine lunch menu at MTR, worth Rs.75, would include fruit juice, payasam, kosambari, vegetable gravy, masala dosa, vangibath, rice, rasam, gojju, sweet pongal, jilebi, ambodé, curds, and fruit salad.

MTR is famous for its mouth watering masala dosa's served with a side of ghee
Idli that melts right in your mouth
Not to mention the sambar and chutney which truly are out of the world

And if there is one thing you would keep asking for more is the aromatic coffee served in silver glasses

As a young bride cannot even mention the number of times MTR instant foods have come in handy,now even as an experienced cook I rely on MTR for a quick break fast or a snack.

Used the following instant mixes today to prepare my entry for RCI hosted by Asha
Quick and easy yet very delicious. Recipe for samabar can be found here

Now for all you readers make sure you pay a visit to MTR next time you are in Bengalooru.

Interesting read on MTR here and here

All the pictures in my blog today are courtesy Flickr creative commons except the last one

Aloo Bread Roll

Aloo Bread Roll

As a dear blog friend mentioned bread rolls are never on the menu, I rarely ever make breadrolls, but was quite inspired when saw the recipe at Rajitha's blog, I knew I had to make it,since I was expecting guests anyways that was a reason enough to try this. Must tell you it came out great, I used wheat bread instead of normal white bread also made this just with Potato/Aloo.
Click here for recipe and instructions

Simple 3 step process

Step1

Make aloo stuffing

Step2
fill the stuffing with bread slice
Step3

Deep fry the stuffed bread rolls

Enjoy with a hot cup of tea.

Thai Curry Noodles

Thai Curry Noodles

Went out to lunch with a colleague few days ago to a restaurant called California Pizza Kitchen aka CPK, this is one of my favorite pizza place to go. We regularly order split pea soup and Greek pizza, a thin crust pizza with feta and other Greek vegetables, but this time for a change ordered Thai Curry Linguine, it was wonderful. Tried to replicate the same at home and boy it was wonderful and tasted just like the one at CPK.

Ingredients for Basic Thai curry sauce
2 big tbsp peanut butter
2 tsp red chili paste
2 tbsp vinegar
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp lime juice
And salt according to taste

Mix all the above into a fine paste

Vegetable for stir fry
½ cup onions slit vertically into thin slices
½ cup carrots julienne
½ cup soy beans
½ cup broccoli flowers
½ snow peas
1 tbsp ginger julienne into thin slices
1 tbsp garlic
1 tbsp green chilies
1/ can of coconut milk
Salt according to taste
½ tbsp sesame oil or any other regular oil

Pasta
1 cup of Linguini/angel hair paste cooked according to package instructions and drained


Process
1.In a wok add ½ tbsp sesame oil, add ginger, garlic and chilies for few seconds add onions, carrots and the rest of the vegetables add a pinch of salt and fry till the vegetables a little cooked but still crunchy
2. Now add Thai curry sauce to the vegetable mix well and then add coconut milk
3. Mix well and bring it to a boil
4. Add boiled and drained linguini to the above and stir well
5. Squeeze juice of half a lemon and remove from heat

Serve hot with a glass of cold ice tea and enjoy the warm Thai curry noodles on a chili evening.

Vinayaka Chavithi Subhakanshalu

Vinayaka Chavithi Subhakanshalu

(Eco friendly Ganesh with natural dyes containing no lead)

Wishing all my readers, friends and family peace & happiness on the eve of Ganesh Chaturdi.

Chinta Chiguru Pappu (Tender Tamarind Leaves Dal)

Chinta Chiguru Pappu (Tender Tamarind Leaves Dal)

There are some foods no matter how many Indian stores around you cannot find them, usually fall into the category of home/mom made pickles, curry powders but with this trip brought few stuff that don’t fall into the above category. You see there is this huge a big tamarind tree right across my parent’s home, this time got the tender tamarind leaves cut sun dried and sealed in vacuum seal pack. So it was time to make dal with the dried tender tamarind leaves, I was very skeptical since I love Chinta chiguru, to my surprise it just tasted like fresh and also got it natural light green color, so your’s truly was very pleased. So from now dried tender leaves will a part of my trip back to US.
Ingredients
1 cup dried tamarind leaves
1 cup toor dal boiled and mashed into a fine paste
½ cup of tamarind water
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
Salt
Haldi

For thadhka
1 tbsp urad dal
1 tbsp jeera
1 tbsp mustard seeds
A pinch of hing
8-10 curry leaves

Process
1.In a pan add a tbsp of oil add all the thadhka ingredients, ginger garlic paste when mustard seeds start to splutter add dried tamarind leaves
2.Add tamarind water to the above and allow it to cook covered for about 5 minutes till the leaves turn color. (optionally add water if required to cover the tamarind leaves)
3.Once the leaves have been boiled in tamarind juice add mashed toor dal paste, add salt and haldi.
4.Mix well and allow it to boil for another 6-8 minutes.

Serve with papad and challa mirapakaya along with hot steaming rice or in today case hot phulka’s .

Kesar Falooda

Kesar Falooda

Must admit there are very few times that I tried Falooda but last week had a block party and had a chance to drink this, boy loved it. Went around seeing if I could find the ingredients required, to my surprise local Indian store not only carried all the ingredients required but also carried ready made mixes. The cool thing about Falooda is it can double as a drink or a dessert. Perfect for a warm summer night, this drink is very versatile in terms of flavor, some of the most popular flavors being Rose, Kesar, and Mango etc...
I believe this is widely popular in North India and is sold as a street fare. I remember eating/drinking this as a kid a while ago on our trip to Delhi in Nirula’s.
More info on Falooda can be found in wiki here
For today I decided to make Kesar Falooda

Ingredients
To make 1 cup of Falooda
1 cup chilled whole milk or half & half
1 small cup of vermicelli (this is sold separately and usually made of arrow root rather then wheat)
1 small cup of sabjal/takamaria seeds
2 small scoops of kesar ice-cream
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp tutti frutti (optional)

Process
1.boil vermicelli in hot water for 10 min and then immediately place it cold water for 10 min and stir well allowing to cool
2.In a glass layer a spoon full of vermicelli, pour cold milk, sugar, rose water (optional), sabjal seed, tutti frooti , mix well
3.float 2 small scoops of kesar icecream on the top of the glass and serve

This will be one refreshing drink, This also is my entry to Monthly Mingle ,Liquid Dreams hosted Meeta


PS: for folks in Bay area Real Ice-cream Kesar Pista works excellent, folks who would be visiting bay Ice-cream from Real ice-cream should be a must try, store carries exotic flavors like chikoo,gulkand, green tea, kesar,mango etc and all their ice-cream are eggless

Gumadikaya Pulusu (Pumpkin Stew)

Gumadikaya Pulusu (Pumpkin Stew) A trip to farmers market is never complete without buying fresh flowers and weird looking pumpkins. I love Pumpkins especially during the fall. I usually make pulusu kind of a stew eaten with rice. This stew/pulusu is on the sweeter side and is usually eaten with mudda pappu/kandi pappu. Accompanied with papad and ghee you get a feeling that you are few steps away from heaven.
Pumpkins grown specially grown in US get tender very quick. So this is fairly a quick stew/pulusu

Ingredients
½ pumpkin cut into small cubes, with the skin on
1 small onion sliced thinly
1 small tomato cubed
3-4 drum sticks
1 Green chili (adjust accordingly)
Tamarind size of a quarter
Salt
Haldi
3-4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp Rice flour
For Thadka
1 tbsp Urad dal
1 tbsp Jeera
1 tbsp Mustard seeds
½ tbsp hing
8-10 curry leaves
2-3 red chilies

Process
1. In a pan add 2 cups water, add tamarind ,Pumpkin, onions, tomato, G.chili, salt and haldi
2. Allow it to boil until Pumpkins are fork tender
3. Now add sugar and check for salt once again, adjust accordingly
4. In a separate bowl add few drops of water to rice flour and make into a thin consistency
5. Add the above rice flour mixture to boiling pot with veggies mix well, adding rice flour with start to thicken pulusu
6. Now is a separate pan add oil and all the ingredients for tadhka, when mustard seeds start to splutter add the above to pulusu
7. Mix pulusu well and allow it to boil for another 3-4 minutes
Garnish with coriander and serve hot


Serve with hot rice,ghee and papad

Talimpu Roti ( Rice & Green Gram Uppittu )

Talimpu Roti ( Rice & Green Gram Uppittu )

This dish is usually made in my household when I am in a real rush or when I hate to cook, this makes a complete meal and hence always comes first when their is time crunch.

Ingredients to be pre made
1 cup of rice soaked in water for 20 min and then dried on towel
1/2 cup of green gram

Process
1. When rice is completely dry, mix green gram and rice and grind in the mixture till it is ground course.
2. This mixture can be stored in an air tight container


Now for Talimpu roti
Ingredients
1 glass of above rice& green gram mixture
2 tbsp ginger finely cut
2 tbsp green chilies finely cut
10-15 curry leaves
1 tbsp urad dal
1 tbsp jeera
1 tbsp mustard seeds
2 glasses water
Salt according to taste

Process
1. In a pan (which later can fit in a pressure cooker) add 1 tbsp of oil, add jeera, urad dal, mustard, G.chilies, ginger and curry leaves
2. Mix till a strong aroma and mustard seeds start to splutter
3. To the above add 2 glasses of water and salt
4. Allow the water to come to a complete boil
5. Add rice and green gram mixture to boil water, mix well
6. Now place this in a pressure cooker and allow for 3 whistles
7. Turn of the pressure cooker and allow cooling
8. Once cooled mix well and add a small tbsp of ghee, it will seem mushy when hot, but when allowed to cool the grains will separate

Enjoy with pickle, it tastes great with yogurt combination too
This will be my entry for JFI hosted by Sharmi of Neivedyam while the concept was originally conceived my Indira on Mahanandi